The Price of Vengeance
by LordDespoiler
Summary: Seven years after his sister died during the Invasion of Japan, Lelouch is finally given a chance to fight back. He has sworn to burn not just his father but Britannia itself to the ground. It will take sacrifice, death, and unimaginable pain. He will cause much sorrow and he may suffer in kind. The price of vengeance is not to be paid lightly.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N and Disclaimer:**

 **WARNING: THIS FANFICTION IS RATED M FOR LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, AND POSSIBLE ADULT THEMES. PLEASE TAKE NOTE.**

 **Welcome one and all to my new Code Geass fanfic, "The Price of Vengeance." I don't do long notes at the beginning of chapters, and the summary has most of what you need to know, so without further ado I invite you to read on!**

 **Disclaimer: I own no part of Code Geass or any of the characters appearing in it.**

* * *

 **Geass**

 _Thoughts_ or occasionally for _emphasis_

* * *

 **Prologue**

* * *

Fire. That was the first thing he noticed. The light, the heat, the stench. Clouds of ash blocked the sky, glowing hellishly from the infernos that blazed throughout the city. The sun—or the stars, he wasn't sure what time it was—were completely obscured by the billowing smoke. Where was he? Why was he on his back?

He tried to turn his head, only to be met by a stab of pain in his neck, drawing a scream from his blood-stained lips and a fit of coughing with it. It felt like his bones were grating against each other when he tried again, but he managed to fight back the pain as another wave of agony rolled over him. What... What happened? His skull felt like he'd run head first into a wall. Where was he?

A flickering sign swung from the building opposite him, kanji just barely legible in the dim light. Right. He was in Tokyo. His father had order the invasion of Japan after banishing them. _Them_.

"Nunnally!" Lelouch tried to shout, but what came out was closer to a loud croak. He cleared his throat, spitting out the foul paste of ash, blood, and saliva that gummed his mouth. "Nunnally!" It took several attempts before he could finally stand, leaning against the pockmarked wall for support. "Nunnally, where are you?!" He thought he made out a faint whimper from the other side of the street, across a crater. Was that it? Had it been an artillery shell or bomb that had knocked him out? Whatever it was, it didn't matter now. Only Nunnally mattered.

He limped through the rubble towards the source of the sound, catching a glimpse of his reflection in one of the few windows that was still intact. A ghostly visage that stared back at him, a face covered in an eerie patina of grey ash . The only patches of color were the dark red trails of blood from his nose and mouth, along with a long diagonal gash just below his left cheekbone, the scab appearing black in the dim light reflecting from the clouds. Another mewl of pain grabbed his attention back to his purpose, and he shook his head to clear his mind. He had to focus.

"Nunnally!" The sound had come from beneath piece of rubble, and he somehow managed to lever it off of the twisted figure beneath it.

"Brother?" Her voice was distorted by pain. His sister's arm looked like it had a second elbow, a hint of discolored white poking through her brown jacket where it bent awkwardly. She…

No. No, he couldn't let it happen. He _wouldn't_ let it happen. "I'm going to get you out OK? Just hold on."

She shook her head weakly, reaching out to grasp his hand. He could barely even feel her grip, it was so weak. "No… Lelouch…" Nunnally moved it down to her stomach, and his breath caught as his fingers felt a solid, metallic rod covered in something sticky and wet.

His eyes dropped unconsciously from her face to her stomach. It hadn't been visible in the dim light at first, but he noticed a dark stain spreading across the lower part of her coat. Closing his hand around the cylinder, he felt the ridges spiraling around it. "No. No!"

"Lelouch…"

This couldn't be happening. Nunnally couldn't die. There was no way that she could die. "I'm going to help you, just hang on." They were only a few minutes from the Ashford's. Maybe there—

He felt her squeeze his hand weakly, and when he looked back at her face piercing blue eyes met his, as sharp as he remembered them despite the immense pain. "Don't, big brother. It won't matter. Just don't… destroy yourself for me. Promise me…" Her labored breath hissed in and out, blood burbling up from her punctured lung with each motion.

He nodded, tears rolling freely down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, Nunnally. I'm sorry." She closed her eyes once more. "Nunnally? Nunnally!"

* * *

"Nunnally!" Lelouch woke with a scream, the stench of blood and fire and smoke still lingering in his nostrils. His sheets were tangled around him, soaked in his sweat, and there was a dull throb in his collarbone. The dim, predawn sunlight filtered through the gaps between his curtains, grey-white instead of the fiery glow of the ash clouds in his nightmare. That's all it had been. A dream. Nunnally was still…

Dead. It wasn't a dream. It was a memory. He closed his eyes in pain. It had been almost a month since he'd made that promise to his sister, and he still dreamed of her nightly, every time waking up convinced that she was alive, that it was just a nightmare. The clock claimed it was just past 4:30 AM, the blocky green numbers the only other light in the room.

He'd barely slept at all, but he knew he couldn't go back to bed after that. Sitting up carefully to protect his broken collarbone—it had been fractured in three separate places, according to the Ashford's doctor—Lelouch gingerly made his way to the bathroom. Milly once told him that the jagged scar on his cheek looked dashing in an attempt to cheer him up, and despite his melancholy a faint smile flitted across his face. It was almost five inches long and still an angry pink compared to the rest of his pale countenance. He had to admit that it added a certain… toughness to his appearance. But what had it cost him to get that scar? His sister's life? Bitterness and grief once again threatened to overwhelm him and he ghosted out of the darkened house, slipping on his shoes before walking to the same place he'd spent most of his time since he'd recovered enough to leave his bed.

Lelouch hadn't been there but five minutes before he heard the crunching of light steps on the gravel path behind him. "Why are you up?" He spoke quietly, but in the silence of the early hours of the morning, his words still carried far enough.

The steps didn't stop until they were right behind him. "Because you scream loud enough to wake the dead, Lelouch." He knew it was a joke but that didn't keep him from wincing, and the girl behind him did the same as she realized her error. "Sorry." Milly sat down on the cold, dew-wet bench beside him and draped his jacket over his shoulders. "You forgot this."

It was only once he felt the coat on him that Lelouch realized how cold it actually was. The night chill still hadn't dissipated from the air, and the damp morning mist did no favors either. He pulled it tighter around himself. "Thanks." His friend's kindness was probably the only reason he'd made it this long at all. She stayed with him every moment of the first week he made it to them, trying to cheer him up and keep him from dwelling on what happened. He knew with certainty that without her he would be dead at his own hand. Lelouch leaned on her gently, closing his eyes in exhaustion and pain.

"It was the same dream." It was a statement, not a question, but Lelouch nodded anyway. It might as well have been a routine now. The nightmares would wake him up at some ungodly hour, his cries rousing her as well, and he'd make his way out to his sister's grave. She would spend time with him there, bring him meals, and tell any adults who wanted to bother him to go to hell. Then they slept and the cycle began anew. Milly idly looked around the serene grove they were in. It was on a natural rise on the main estate, which connected to the new property her grandfather purchased for his 'Ashford Academy.' Trees gave privacy to the small central clearing where a single slab of polished, pink-flecked marble now stood. There was no name on it, obviously, but Lelouch himself had chosen the inscription:

 _In remembrance of a gentle soul, loved by all._

 _She was too kind for a world so cruel._

 _October 25, 2002 a.t.b._

 _March 2, 2010 a.t.b._

Lelouch was the first to break the silence, his breath steaming in the morning chill. "It's my fault she's dead. If I hadn't been so damn stubborn, we would have still been in Pendragon." He toyed with the corner of the coat, mindlessly rolling it between his fingers.

Milly wanted to punch him for his stupidity. Sure he was smart, but that didn't mean that every bad thing that ever happened was his fault; it just meant he could think of more things he could have done to stop it. "Don't start, Lelouch. If you'd stayed, you just would have been easy targets for whoever killed your mom." She gave him a glare, daring him to argue.

He didn't. He couldn't. He was too proud of his rationality to deny the obvious, and a few tears finally leaked out of his eyes. "I know. I know. It's… I just still can't believe she's gone." His face tightened and his fists clenched in grief and rage. It was a minute or two before Lelouch turned to look at Milly, and the raw hatred blazing in his violet eyes almost made her flinch. "I'm going to kill him. I swear, I'm going to tear down everything he has built and watch it burn."

She felt something drop in the pit of her stomach. She'd been afraid of this. "Who?" Even as she asked the question, she knew the answer already. Who was the man who'd taken everything from him? Who'd ordered the invasion that killed his sister?

"I'm going to kill my father. I don't know when." His words were deadly calm now. He knew exactly what he was saying. Lelouch moved to kneel beside the headstone, tracing the words with his fingers. It wouldn't be soon, he knew. He needed external support, and it might even have to be a full blown revolution when he finally made his move. "But I'm going to kill Charles zi Britannia and watch his empire _burn_."

 **A/N:**

 **Edited/revised as of 1/26/2017.**

 **There are some other similar fics with a similar premise floating around, but I figured I'd try my hand at this.**

 **Chapters 2 and 3 cover Shinjuku and are a little shorter. At the moment of my writing this, they feel a little unpolished and disjointed, so I will be fleshing them out and revising them to touch up the transitions fairly soon. I'm happier with chapter 4, though knowing me I'll surely come back and revisit that as well.**

 **Milly is going to be a major factor in this story, but she's going to be significantly more serious. Not super serious—she'll still be Milly—but certainly more serious than in the show and most other fics. Because of this, she may end up seeming a bit OOC relative to the show, but I'll try to make it as believable as possible given the initial differences in this story. Fair warning.**

 **I'm unsure about pairings at the moment. I have some ideas floating around, but we'll see where it goes, I guess.**

 **Thank you for reading. As always, reviews, follows, favs, etc. are greatly appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I own none of Code Geass or its characters, setting, etc.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Lost Innocence.**

* * *

Lord Crawford smirked at the old man across from him as his opponent shifted again in his chair. He was only a proxy, but the nobleman had already won a knight and controlled the open E file, all without spending more than half of his clock. "You'd better hope your partner is some kind of genius."

"He is." The words came from a black-haired youth walking down the hallway, a leather jacket slung over his shoulder.

"My opponent is a student?" Crawford snorted as the newcomer stopped behind his proxy to observe the board. "This must be some kind of joke. Where's your chaperone?"

It took an effort for Lelouch not to snap at the bastard. That attitude, that… _arrogance_ was why he hated Britannia. He jangled his keys, still focused on the board. "I have a bike." He tapped the old man on the shoulder. "I'll take this from here. Thanks for your help."

Lelouch took his seat. He already saw a winning string, ten or eleven move pairs long, depending on his opponent's play. Crawford had developed over-aggressively, leaving too little to defend his kingside. All the material in the world was useless if it could not be brought to bear. He slid his knight over to fork a rook and queen, willingly sacrificing it to force the noble's pawn structure apart and begin the assault.

Ten minutes later, Lelouch walked out of the building, checking his phone to ensure the money had been transferred to his account. The Viceroy—not his brother, not for the last seven years—had just appeared on the many digital advertisement displays of the Britannian quarter, surely to offer some assorted platitudes about the ungratefulness of Eleven "terrorists" in the face of Brittania's "generosity."

He grimaced and tuned it out like always as he made his way to his motorcycle. Lelouch hated this. He hated the inequality, the discrimination, even Britannia itself, but most of all he hated this prison of a life. After training for years with Sayoko to become a decent fighter, he still couldn't even make contact with a resistance group. The Japanese could be just as racist as his own people, in their own way.

His ringing cellphone prevented any further brooding. He redirected the call to his earpiece and pulled out onto the road. "This is Lelouch."

The chipper voice of his best friend greeted him. "Hey, how'd the game go?" Milly asked.

He couldn't help but cheer up a little when he heard her voice, but kept his tone neutral. It was a game they played. "Same as all the others. Why did you call?"

"You mean other than talking to my foster brother?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes as he pulled onto the freeway. "Milly…"

"Fine, fine. It's just…" She paused, hesitating for a moment. "You don't need to do this. I know what your goals are and support them, and papa would too if you told him your plans. You don't need to go around conning nobles out of millions of pounds just to fund your… projects."

Lelouch snorted. "Maybe I _like_ fleecing arrogant, racist, aristocratic pigs out of their fortunes."

Now it was Milly's turn to groan in frustration. "Stop it. We both know that it's a risk every time you meet a noble. If they recognize you, you're screwed."

"I'm not going to endanger you and your grandfather, Milly! You've already done enough to make any claims of plausible deniability questionable at best if I get caught. I—what the hell?!"

Milly heard a crash on the other end of the line and it went dead. She tried calling back. Out of service. "Shit!" What was that? An accident? Dammit.

"President?" Shirley had come over. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing. Lelouch just hung up on me, that's all."

* * *

He groaned and blinked the stars from his vision, gently testing his muscles to see if anything was broken. Lelouch winced at the pain, but thankfully there was none the telltale, grating agony of bone fracture as he stood up. His bike was a wreck too, though at least the combat knife he kept in the compartment hadn't come out. The familiar weight was comforting as Lelouch slipped it into his wrist sheath. Perhaps it was stupid of him, but though he'd trained with firearms with Sayoko, he was always more comfortable with bladed weapons, maybe out of his teacher's similar preference.

" _I finally found you._ " Lelouch looked around for the source of the voice and blinked again, sure that he was hallucinating the radiant figure that appeared above the truck. It remained for a few seconds before blowing away like dust in the wind.

He made his way over toward the semi, blocking out the pain as Sayoko taught him. "Hello?" Lelouch realized he didn't know why he was doing… whatever this was. But it felt like something was drawing him in, something—some _one_ —needed him. He opened the back of the trailer and stepped inside, giving his eyes a moment to adjust. There was some sort of containment sphere and… an old knightmare?! A Glasgow? "What the fuck?" He breathed quietly. He heard voices from the front and ducked behind the container, settling down to wait.

A few minutes later, Lelouch grunted as the truck finally careened to a halt, apparently crashing into another wall.

He wasn't sure whether Sayoko would berate him if she were here, or if she'd be too busy laughing at his stupidity. It was rather surreal, after all. He was in the back of a semi-truck that seemed to belong to some sort of resistance group with a container that apparently carried poison gas, if the conversation between the driver and his accomplice was anything to go by. That same accomplice happened to be one of the few classmates he was rather close to—at least as close as he was with anyone besides Milly—because they were the only ones who were ever critical of Britannia in their freshman history class. Lelouch knew Kallen was half-Japanese from her records, though he'd never mention it to her, but part of the resistance? Kallen, who was excused from gym class for medical reasons?

And the whole reason that he was here in the first place was because he heard a voice in his head and seen a hallucination of some green-haired girl in a straitjacket! "Un-fucking-believable." Lelouch couldn't help but say it out loud. All these years being careful, and one stupid moment trapped him in an unwinnable situation. If the resistance found him, he looked like a Britannian spy, and if the Britannians found him, either they checked his ID and found out who he really was or they shot him in the back as he ran. Wonderful.

Lelouch ducked behind a crate of weapons as the door cracked open, the dim light of the subway tunnels silhouetting a single Britannian soldier. He must be scouting down here for the gas, but on his own? Really?

"I know you have the gas in there! Come out with your hands up. I promise you'll receive a fair trial." That voice. He knew that voice, the absolute conviction in his words.

Suzaku. A tendril of rage and betrayal curled around Lelouch's heart. Suzaku Kururugi had joined Britannia. _No_. This wasn't right! This was supposed to be his right hand during the rebellion, his closest confidant… And he turned his back on Lelouch, on his people… on Nunnally. "You traitorous bastard!" Lelouch spun out of cover and launched a kick into his old friend's chest, driving him back a few steps. He couldn't beat Suzaku, but he didn't care anymore. He wasn't going to survive the day anyway.

A few seconds and a series of blows later, a spin kick slammed Lelouch back against the container, his head snapping back against the button to open it. He tasted blood in his mouth and heard a hiss as the pressure seals released. It took him a moment to process what was inside, and he turned back to Suzaku, who had picked up his rifle and leveled it at him.

"Go on. Shoot me. Be a good little soldier and kill your best friend, you bastard," Lelouch said, a manic fire in his eyes. "Don't ask why your superiors lied about what the terrorists were stealing. Don't ask what's right. Just do what they tell you so you don't have to think anymore."

"Whoever you are, get out of the truck." Kururugi took a few steps back.

Lelouch obeyed, daring his old friend to look him in the eye as he stepped into the light. "Shoot the terrorist, Suzaku. All you have to do is squeeze the trigger."

"Lelouch? You survived?" Suzaku lowered his weapon slightly and moved forward, unable to believe his eyes. "Is Nunnally—"

"Don't you dare say her name!" Lelouch yelled hoarsely. He couldn't stop tears from rolling down his cheeks, washing lines of dust from his face. "You—you have no right. You betrayed us. You betrayed _her_."

The clatter of boots cut off Suzaku's reply as a half-dozen royal guardsmen ran down the tunnel, their weapons trained on him. An officer—a major, Lelouch thought, though he couldn't quite make out the details of the uniform through his tears—stepped forward. "Excellent work, private! You found the terrorists."

Suzaku glanced behind him briefly without taking his gun off Lelouch. "Thank you, sir, but—"

"Shoot him."

His old friend bit his lip, his finger staying steady on the trigger. "Sir, this man has surrendered. To shoot him would be an illegal summary exec—"

"I'm sorry," The major interrupted, his eyes hardening dangerously. "Are you disobeying a direct order from a superior officer, Eleven?"

"Sir, I can't—" Suzaku saw a brief flash in the cab of the truck before his entire world exploded.

* * *

The blast tossed Lelouch like a ragdoll and he landed next to the girl from the truck, sucking in a lungful of dusty, smoke-filled air as he tried to regain his breath. The ceiling had caved in, putting a wall of rubble between them and the Britannians. He was safe, at least for—

A shot rang out from the other side of the wall, making Lelouch flinch. Suzaku. He rested his head against the ground, closing his eyes, clenching his teeth against the rage, not sure if it was directed toward Kururugi or those who shot him. He joined the Enemy, but...

He stepped back from his thought process with a deep breath. Sayoko's lessons again echoed in his ear. Focus on the battle, then the future. Any distractions decrease the chances of victory.

There was chatter on the other side of the rubble. The officer assumed they'd been crushed when the ceiling collapsed. They'd be sent back for bodies before long if this girl was important enough for all this shit, but Lelouch wasn't arguing. He stayed still for a minute or two after the soldiers left, then moved over to look at the girl. She was unconscious from the blast, but it wasn't like he could leave her. He cut the girl's restraints with his knife and—

 _He was kneeling in the rubble, Nunnally in his arms, the smoke from the burning city scraping against his throat. Tears left pale streaks on his ash-covered cheeks—_

 _As the girl ran through a trench, bombs falling around her, bullets flying everywhere. A tank rolled over a rise and—_

 _He ran down the stairs to his mother's unmoving body, unwilling to process the pooling blood staining the carpet. She would wake up. She had to wake up. She—_

 _Stood over the corpse of the nun, the one person who had ever really cared for her. No. That had been a lie, just like how everyone else was lying. Now—_

 _He had no reason to live. Lelouch sat in front of Nunnally's grave, too numb and exhausted to cry. Milly called for him as the edges of his vision began to go dark and—_

He snatched his hand back as if burnt, scrambling back against the wall of rubble to put distance between them. It took a moment for him to process that he still had his knife before he brandished it at the girl as she stirred and undid her gag. She sat there, silently staring at him with her golden eyes. There was some kind of tattoo on her forehead beneath the strands of green-haired. "Who—what are you?"

Interesting. There was a tremor of emotion in his voice. Fear and anger, yes, but also... nostalgia. No, that wasn't quite right. _Longing_. That was it. Longing for the past and loathing for the present hidden behind a mask of indifference. She felt a pang of… something in her chest. Regret… regret for the fate she was about to choose for him. "I'm CC."

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Ummm… Where to start?**

 **I guess with an apology that I haven't updated anything for so long. Having trouble getting started with writing is a problem when you have real life to worry about. Who knew?**

 **I am sorry, though. I really appreciate how much support I have gotten for what I have done so far on both of my stories, and I feel bad that I haven't had a chance to get any updates done first because of work and then school. If you have read both my fics, this just happened to be the one that I got momentum on first. I have a good chunk of the next update for "From Guilt, Resolve" done, although given that I have to deal with end-of-semester workloads in my classes (and my previous record with time estimates) I'm not going to put any specific estimates on that. As I said, I tend to write whatever I get going on, so it's hard for me to really predict it.**

 **Anyway, as you can see this is a rather short chapter, about half of the length I try to aim for. I have most of the rest of Shinjuku written, but I have a couple of papers I need to get done before I'll have time to finish, so for that I will definitely try to have that out by the end of next weekend. Depending on how that goes, I might try to move to more, smaller updates because they are easier for me to get started on.**

 **Again, if you get to the end of this, thank you for being so patient with me. As always, any feedback is appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed the read!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2: Harsh Reality**

* * *

A new wave of flashbacks engulfed him, flickering by too fast to follow. The visions faded in and out, warping the boundary between reality and illusion.

 _No. Stop. It's just another memory. This isn't real._

 _None of it is real_.

"Stop it!" Lelouch cried out loud. He forced his eyes open, mind surfacing from the suffocating whirlpool of memories. The girl sat a few feet away from him, propped up against a wall, calmly looking on as he tried to take hold of himself.

He was still in the tunnel, the cool darkness as refreshing as air after… whatever that was.

"You recovered quickly," she said calmly.

What was her name? CC. She said her name was CC right before the second round hit. It sounded more like the tag of a lab experiment than an actual person.

That… moment was triggered when he touched her, hadn't it? He cursed, still thinking slowly as he forced himself to focus on one thing at a time. But then…

"Did you do… whatever this was?" Lelouch asked. He modulated his breathing as much as he could with all the dust and smoke that the explosion kicked up.

"When I touch another person, I can exchange memories with them," she said. "It can be traumatic."

"You…" Lelouch trailed off, not quite comprehending at first. It took a moment to reconcile her matter-of-fact tone with her words. "That's not possible. There's no way that you could just—"

"You saw my memories too." She cut him off and shifted a little, trying to find a more comfortable chunk of rubble to sit on.

He didn't want to believe it. There was no way it was possible, and yet in a scary way it was the only thing that made sense. "You called to me, didn't you? I saw a… a vision of you, before this whole thing started. It was why I ended up in the truck."

"It's... possible." He waited for her to continue, but received only silence. For the first time she sounded uncertain. It comforted him in a way. At least he wasn't the only one confused about something. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry," she said after a long pause. Lelouch glanced up at her questioningly and she shrugged. "It's always bad the first time and I wasn't suppressing it while I was a prisoner, since—"

"Fuck them. Yeah, I get it." He heard a wordless sound of agreement from her direction. He sighed and stood up, bracing against the wall, his whole body aching from being tossed like a ragdoll. "We should go. The guardsmen might still be looking for us."

* * *

"Shit!" Kallen ducked her knightmare as another spray of rounds from the Sutherlands pockmarked the walls around her. Several glanced off the armor of the Glasgow, making the old frame groan in protest. She spun around and fired her slash harken, watching it connect with leg of the rearmost Sutherland . It sheared off at the hip, sending the machine spinning to the ground. Before she could reel it in, the other pursuer's hand shot out and yanked the cable, briefly pulling her frame off-balance. Kallen frantically slammed the release button before she lost control completely and watched her last offensive weapon disappear as she slid around the next corner.

"Fuck!" Static crackled over the radio briefly, fading in and out. "Ohgi?! Ohgi, are you there?" Nothing but interference. She cursed again and sped up, wincing as yet more rounds thudded off the outdated plates of her knightmare. These Purist bastards were tenacious if nothing else. Kallen knew the warren-like alleys of Shinjuku like the back of her hand, but the Sutherlands were too fast to escape outright, and they could run for longer. She bit her lip as a low beep echoed in the cockpit.

Fifteen minutes.

If her hands weren't on the control sticks, she would've punched the dial in frustration. She was screwed. _They_ were screwed.

"Kallen?!" The sound from her radio made her start. "Kallen, can… hear me?"

The interference was cutting in and out, but still. Finally some good news. "I'm here, Ohgi! What's going on?"

"Hold… There!" The connection cleared up a little bit. "Where are you, Kallen?"

"I'm near the old shrine. I took the Glasgow to draw some knightmares off Nagata, but my energy isn't going to last long." She bit her lip. "Did he make it to you guys?"

There was an ominous pause. "We haven't seen him since you left. The Britannians probably picked him up."

Kallen slammed her head against the back of her seat. "Dammit! What the hell happened?"

"Best I can tell, they just responded with overwhelming force. It seems like the entire Tokyo Garrison is here, cordoning off the ghetto." Ohgi paused again, gathering himself. "They're… they're killing civilians, Kallen. Everyone in the ghetto."

* * *

"Are you still there, Kallen?" Ohgi's fingers tightened on the radio. "Can you—"

"I'm still here, dammit!" Even with the static, he could hear the tears in her voice. "Is there… do we have a chance at stopping them?"

She had to know the answer to that. They all did, from the moment the operation was compromised. "Not by fighting."

"So then…"

"Yes. It's the only way we can try to save them." Ohgi massaged his forehead. "It's terrible, but what choice do we have?"

"We could… I don't know. Do something! What's to stop that royal bastard from destroying the ghetto after we surrender just out of spite?"

"What was it that friend at school told you when he taught you how to play chess? Don't—"

"Fight for the sake of fighting if you can retreat with a chance of winning! Yeah, I know what he told me, but those were chess pieces, not people! Not friends!"

"Dammit, Kallen. If we fight, we kill everyone in this ghetto!" Ohgi ducked back into a ruin as another dropship flew over their position. "Their blood will be on our hands. And I am the leader of this group, not you. Try to run. Maybe you can get out somehow." He reached to switch off the link, but his hand hesitated for a moment. "Take care of yourself. I'll see you on the other side."

He leaned back against the wall, trying to get a hold of himself. Most of the rest of the team was with him, or what was left of it, at any rate. Inoue went down earlier when a piece of rubble crushed her torso during one of the early firefights and Minami took a bullet to the leg trying to get to her. He was jacked up on morphine downstairs, along with the rest of the wounded. Apart from that, most of the core group was alright, but they'd already lost almost a third of everyone else.

Shit. How many were left? Twenty if he included the wounded? What the fuck had he been thinking? That Clovis was just going to let them get away with the gas?

"So that's it then?" Ohgi looked up to find Tamaki standing over him, a stony expression on his face. "We're giving up?"

The older man bristled. "What else do you want me to do, Tamaki? Fight fifty-odd knightmares and a brigade of support troops with twenty resistance fighters a couple of RPGs? Are you fucking stupid?" He asked angrily. His old friend's attitude was entertaining sometimes, but it was hard to understand how at times like this. "It's over. We lost."

"So we're being cowards? Just like the government during the Invasion?"

"Look around you! The ghetto is being wiped out. Our families, our friends, they're all dying because of _us_ , Tamaki." Ohgi didn't care that some of the new guys were staring at the two of them arguing. "You may not have family around here, but my sister is in Shinjuku. What about the daughter of that guy who owns that noodle place by the old temple? The one you're hot on but don't have the balls to actually ask out? How about Minami's cousin? Sugiyama's girlfriend? Should they pay for our mistakes?"

"But we can—"

The impact stung his knuckles and spun Shinichiro to the floor, blood seeping from his nose. Part of Ohgi regretted it, but part of him was immensely satisfied. He turned to the rest of the group that was standing around. "We fight, we kill maybe thirty more Britannians and they kill everyone in the damn ghetto. Everyone we care about. We surrender, maybe they live."

A ragged, uncertain round of affirmatives answered him, along with a few murmurs of discontent. They would follow orders, in the end. Ohgi felt a pang of helpless anger. He shouldn't be here. He wasn't a leader or a strategist, he was a goddamn teacher. Naoto had always been the one with the plan who knew what to say to people.

 _But I'm all there is now_. He bit back tears of frustration and beckoned the radio operator. "Hakaru, tell anyone of ours still outside of this safe house to go to ground, along with the families of whoever's still here. When that's done, get me a line to the bastard on the other side. Let's get this over with."

* * *

Gottwald grinned like a shark as he raced after the Glasgow. The pilot was damn good. The shot that took out McIntyre's frame was impressive as hell, but showed his inexperience. Anyone who trained in group knightmare combat learned quickly that as powerful as they were, slash harkens weren't perfect. If the cable wasn't released immediately, a good pilot could take advantage exactly as he had.

He'd finally started to make up ground, at least. Glasgow frames were infamous for their inefficiency, and that one had been running at full capacity for nearly forty-five minutes. Still, he hadn't had a chase this good in years. Whoever that pilot was could've handled most of his full knights with no problem.

His quarry, perhaps twenty seconds ahead of him, fled around another corner. He grinned when he heard the unmistakable rumble of ejection rockets.

It had only been a matter of time, and now there was no way out.

* * *

Kallen let out a sigh of relief as the Sutherland chased after the ejected cockpit and dropped down from where she'd been hanging on the underbelly of the Glasgow.

She stifled a cry as she used her hands to help cushion her landing. The only good handholds were jagged edges where the Purists had hit her knightmare, and she left bloody handprints on the ground when she stood. At least the gashes didn't seem very deep, even as painful as they were; she hadn't thought to grab the first aid kit from the cockpit before she triggered the ejection sequence.

There was a crackle of renewed gunfire in the distance. Ohgi… Sugiyama… Tamaki… Kallen fought back tears as reality hit her. Britannia won. They were all going to be captured and probably executed within the week, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop them. Part of her wanted to go back and stand with them, but she could already see Naoto's frown.

She had to get out. For him, she had to get out. Wiping away more tears, she glanced around to get her bearings. If a patrol stopped her, someone would start asking questions about what a Britannian student was doing in the ghetto, and she'd be screwed. Even if the bastards did spare the civilians, they'd still probably arrest her on suspicion alone.

That meant the old subway tunnels were her only way out. She might be able to sneak past the soldiers down there… or at least get close enough to give her a chance.

"Someone is trying to contact us, my lord." The communications officer glanced over his shoulder to the command throne of the G-1. "He claims to be the leader of the Shinjuku Resistance forces."

* * *

Prince Clovis la Britannia, Imperial Viceroy of Area 11 and third son of his Majesty Emperor Charles zi Britannia, stirred from his bored lounging. A self-satisfied smirk made its way across his face. "So they finally decided to accept the inevitable." He waved dismissively. "Put him on screen. Let's see what he has to say."

After a moment, an exhausted-looking Eleven, grimy from smoke and debris, appeared onscreen. He wore street clothes rather than a uniform, the only distinguishing feature being his red headband. The man's jaw tightened when he saw who he faced. "Viceroy."

Clovis leaned forward slightly at the terse, biting tone. "My communications officer said that you claim to be the leader of your little band of malcontents in this district." The other man nodded stiffly. "You are calling to offer your surrender?"

"Yes, along with the surrender of the rest of the active resistance members in Shinjuku. Just… stop killing the civilians." The words visibly pained him.

Clovis sat back contemplatively, stroking his chin. "And what you stole from me?"

The Eleven frowned. "If you haven't found it already, you should soon. I lost contact some time ago."

The prince didn't respond immediately, carefully keeping his expression neutral. The rotund man to his left leaned towards him. "Your grace, we can simply—"

Clovis raised his hand to cut him off. "Very well, Eleven. Give yourselves up and I will halt the purge."

As he cut the link, General Bartley again interjected. "Your grace, we can just cleanse the ghetto anyway."

"And risk inciting more unrest?" The Viceroy shook his head. "No. The package is too large and conspicuous to move anyway, and they won't risk letting the 'gas' out to check what's inside. We will show mercy to the people of Shinjuku. Search the entire district." He turned to the other man and lowered his voice so the rest of the bridge couldn't overhear him. "I want her found! If you don't, I will hold you personally responsible for this failure, Bartley. Am I clear?"

"Yes... Yes, your grace," the general stammered. "It will be done."

* * *

He ghosted up behind the last pair of soldiers guarding the tunnel exit. The moon was only a sliver in the night sky as he glanced up. It was later than he guessed.

The guards weren't even looking toward the tunnel itself, too focused on their orders to keep people out of the ghetto to consider someone trying to escape. Surprising, certainly, but Lelouch wasn't about to complain.

He waited until the second guard glanced away for a moment and then sank his knife into the other's neck, cutting off any cry he might've made. Before the body could hit the ground the same blade found its way to the other Britannian's heart. He quickly checked to make sure there were no others and wiped the weapon on the guard's uniform, carefully ignoring the man's face. He'd never killed until today, and after he fought another pair further back in the tunnel he almost threw up.

"All clear," Lelouch called back to his companion.

CC came out of the shadows and picked her way forward, wary of her footing. He couldn't blame her; the straitjacket leggings had so little padding for her feet that a jagged piece of gravel would probably tear a hole in it.

"We should be fine from here on out." He finished cleaning his knife and glanced up at her. "You're outfit might raise some eyebrows, but unless they send out a description of you or an APB or something there shouldn't be a problem."

"They won't," she said.

Lelouch shook his head. There was that laconic, matter-of-fact tone that was already becoming familiar. "If you say so."

 **A/N:**

 **I'm late on updating again. What a shocker!**

 **Once again, real life got in the way of updates. Not even going to try to put any kind of estimate on when I'll finish the next one.**

 **I seem to find myself focusing more on this fic that FGR when I sit down to write. That might change in the future, but that's why this has been getting updates instead of the other one. I do want to continue both, it's just that I have very limited time and just write whatever I'm feeling like at the moment.**

 **I've been considering changing what Lelouch's Geass will be when he gets it (SPOILERS), but haven't really decided on that, let alone considered what it might be. I'm leaning toward sticking with the canon ability.**

 **Obviously, this story will deviate pretty quickly. Well,** _ **already has**_ **deviated pretty quickly, really. Hope you enjoyed it all!**

 **I know this is short again. I may well come back and flesh out this chapter before moving on, we'll see.**

 **As always feedback of any type is greatly appreciated!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Sing, Goddess, of Terrible Rage

* * *

The train platform was deserted except for them. It was as grimy and unkempt as any city's public transit. The tile was cracked and patchy, some pieces missing entirely. Dirt and soot stained nearly everything, ground in over years without maintenance, and most of the paint that marked the caution zone near the tracks had flaked away as well. Many lights that weren't already dead flickered uncertainly, as if gasping their last breaths before the end.

Lelouch staggered against the railing as they reached the top of the stairs. The adrenaline that kept him going through the evening was beginning to drain from his body, and the aches it suppressed finally slammed into him, soothed only slightly by the faintest beginnings of a cool spring drizzle.

He saw a payphone down at the end of the platform and turned back to CC, fishing for his wallet. "I need to make a call. Get a couple of one-way tickets, would you?" She shrugged and took the bill he offered as he limped his way over to the phone and shoved in a few coins.

"Milly Ashford." Lelouch sagged in relief as his best friend's voice filtered back to him.

"Hey, it's Lelouch."

He heard what might've been a sigh of relief and then— "Where the hell have you been?!" Lelouch already predicted her outburst and moved the phone away from his ear, but she was still loud enough to make him wince. "I haven't heard from you in nearly eight hours!"

"Milly, I—"

"Don't 'Milly' me, you royal idiot," she interrupted almost before he could begin to respond. "I don't know what you were trying to do, but if it involved giving me a heart attack, you did pretty damn well!" The tinny voice quality of the payphone just made the volume all the more excruciating. "Your gambling is stupid, reckless habit. In fact, we were just going over that again until I heard what sounded like a fucking car crash and your phone went dead," she continued furiously. "But then you said to yourself, 'let's not bother to call my best friend to let her know I'm alright. It's not like she'll be worried about me or anything.'"

Lelouch leaned against the phone box and waited a moment to make sure that Milly had paused for breath before he tried again. "My phone broke in the crash. I'm sorry, OK?"

"There wasn't anywhere you could borrow a phone?" Milly asked with a snort. "No one you could ask? No stores?"

"Look, I have had an incredibly shitty day," Lelouch hissed, his emotions finally coming to a head. "I was nearly killed three times. I've had multiple flashback episodes, I'm coming down off an adrenaline high, and the only way I survived is incredible blind luck. Can you please wait to bite my head off until I actually get home?!"

"What—" Milly cut herself off from asking what happened. He wouldn't explain over the phone, not in a public place. "OK… OK. I just… I worry about you. You know that."

"Yeah," Lelouch sighed and massaged his forehead as he heard a familiar racket in the distance. "Listen, the train's here. I have to go. I'll probably be back in a little over an hour. Don't stay up for me, OK? We'll talk in the morning."

"Fine. But you owe me," she said begrudgingly. He couldn't help but laugh his real laugh since this whole insanity began. "I'm glad you're alright, Lulu."

Despite how much he hated it, the familiarity of the nickname was comforting after all the insanity of the past few hours. "So am I Milly. See you later." He hung up the phone as the train finally rumbled up to the platform and turned to find CC standing behind him silently, like a green-haired ghost appearing out of the misting rain. Her hyper-focused stare made him flinch back in surprise.

"Here's your ticket."

The inside of the car was in just as bad a shape as the platform was, and almost empty. He could smell the cigarette smoke infused into the seat cushions and the old urine dried on the floor, that stench so characteristic of unmaintained urban transit. It was still familiar from the early days of his gambling before he got the bike, not that he'd ever admit to Milly that he sneaked into the ghettos on his own when he was fifteen. That would be unwise.

Shrugging to himself, Lelouch sat down on the nearest relatively unstained seat. Finally. He thought training with Sayoko would prepare him for actually fighting back, but sparring for a few hours a day—sometimes less when he had schoolwork—couldn't prepare anyone for facing real danger.

But to finally act on his rage and strike back against Britannia was… satisfying. His vague plans were coming into focus. It had finally begun, and it scared him.

"You're conflicted," CC observed quietly. For someone who acted as she did, she was surprisingly good at reading people.

"Not exactly." Lelouch paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, trying to refocus his mind from all the different threads it was running. "I'm just worried about minimizing the consequences."

CC blinked in surprise, as if she was looking a child who didn't understand what he was talking about. "You want to take revenge on your father and you are worried about minimizing the consequences?"

"He's not my father, not after what he did to me!" He clamped his teeth together to cut off his retort, unconsciously reaching up to run his fingers along his scarred cheek. "I will watch him burn," he spat, "I just…"

"Don't want to hurt what you care about?" CC chuckled. He wasn't sure she was entertained or derisive. "You don't get to choose what you have to pay for revenge, Lelouch."

"You talk as if you have experience trying to overthrow a monarchy," he snapped.

His companion avoided his gaze and looked out the window, the passing lights creating shadows that flickered across her frown. "The price of vengeance is not to be paid lightly." Her words sounded as if they were a memory she never meant to voice.

Thankfully, Lelouch didn't question her cryptic statement. They traveled the rest of the way in near-silence, punctuated only by the screeching stops and hissing doors of their ride. CC found herself wincing each time the train came to a halt. After so long in the deathlike stillness of her captivity, the aging brakes grated against her ears each time they fired.

Still, it was a step towards freedom—the freedom to die and escape the prison of her Code. She just needed Lelouch to finish the job.

CC saw his memories. She knew how he grew to trust no one but those closest to him, who may as well have been his family by this point. He would never take a contract unless he was truly desperate, and even then he would need to trust her.

She should probably just move on. Ragnarok hadn't been terribly enticing even before Charles' son had her imprisoned and experimented on for nearly four years. It was always just a vehicle to rid herself of immortality. How that end came about about didn't particularly matter to her. As much as Marianne seemed set on Lelouch as joining their delusional little plot, CC had trouble imagining any world where he would ever cooperate with his father. She briefly glanced over to where he lounged back, arms crossed and eyes closed as he dozed.

Even if he didn't join his parents, though, he was just too tempting a target. Brilliant, strong, ambitious… all the traits that she could want for a contractor. Lelouch would use a Geass, and use it often if the immensity of his ambitions was anything to go by. It would evolve quickly, and his qualities gave her hope he might actually survive his escapades until it did.

No, there was far too much potential for her to walk away from a chance to make a contract with him. And so she found herself in the odd position of concluding that she actually needed to interact with someone on a personal level in a way she hadn't for centuries. To befriend him and get him to trust her. She couldn't just step back and let him abuse Geass until it eventually went runaway, unfortunately.

Her pondering was interrupted when the subject of her thoughts snapped open his eyes and rose as the loudspeaker announced the next stop. "We're here."

The train stopped a few minutes from the back gate of the Ashford estate, and as they walked CC familiarized herself with the new environment, matching the buildings and intersections lit by the warm yellow glow of the street lamps to his memories that still floated in her mind.

The school itself was well inside the formal boundaries of the Tokyo Settlement, and it showed. Where the ghettos were poster children of urban blight, the Britannian neighborhoods gave an almost picturesque model of an affluent, modern city. Glass and steel were everywhere, and the roads themselves were lined with spaced, well-tended trees to soften the artificial nature of the buildings themselves.

It was odd how quickly everything seemed to change. CC remembered visiting a couple of centuries ago, just after the borders were finally opened, and it had hardly changed in the four hundred years before that. Japan had always been nice that way. That was why she visited here so often over the centuries. It was frozen in time just like she was.

None of that appeal was left now, nor was her desire to try to seek it out. Back then, the world still interested her, but that was a long, long time ago.

It took a moment for Lelouch to punch in his code to open the back gate to the private Ashford Residence so they didn't have to cut across the school grounds. After minute or two of gingerly picking her way across the gravel drive wearing the cloth leggings masquerading as boots, she caught up with him on the back porch just as he found the right key.

CC brushed past him into the house when he opened the door, lounging on the nearest available couch. He shrugged and felt around for the switch by the door to turn on the kitchen and living room lights. It took a moment, and Lelouch frowned as he realized his hands were still trembling slightly. He needed to talk to Sayoko about that. Today was his first time fighting in earnest, but after this long it should've calmed down by now.

"It's a side effect of the mind-link," she said, laying back on the soft leather and tucking her hands behind her head.

"What?"

She pointed at his hand. "You wondered why your fingers were shaking. It's from the shock of when we shared memories."

He glanced back to her. "That's just a normal side effect?"

"In a way," CC said with a shrug. "Usually the hallucinations continue for a while, sometimes as long as thirty minutes. You hardly suffered them at all, so your hands should be fine by tomorrow."

For thirty… Lelouch didn't bother finishing the thought. He just learned today that supernatural powers existed, and now he was shocked that he couldn't predict what they did? He shook his head. He knew better than that. Never assume that a new variable could be predicted. Ever.

"You want something to drink?" He asked as he removed his own shoes. "Water? Soda? Wine?"

"Wine, please."

He went into the kitchen and poured a couple of glasses of a bottle of white that stood on the counter, already half empty. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly who'd been drinking it while she worried about him.

He went back out and sat down opposite CC, handing her one of the drinks. "You know, most of my guests don't strip off their pants when they walk in the door," he remarked dryly, noting that her leggings now lay by the shoe rack next to the door.

"You need to find more interesting guests," she replied without missing a beat, an almost imperceptible twinkle in her eyes. To her own surprise, CC found her banter somewhat genuine. It often felt like an effort for her to connect at all with her contractors over the last few centuries. "Also, they clearly didn't spend three years in a straitjacket," she continued and closed her eyes, stretching out further and reveling in the sensation of cool leather beneath her skin.

"Fair enough."

CC savored her wine for a few moments before opening her eyes again and turning her attention back to Lelouch. "You're going to kill the Viceroy." It wasn't a question, and both of them knew it. "I want to help."

"Under an hour ago you lectured me on the futility of worrying about consequences, and now you want to help me?"

She shrugged at his questions. "He imprisoned me for years. I want to see him dead."

Lelouch narrowed his eyes, trying to gauge her motives. "How can I trust you?"

CC hesitated for a few moments before making her decision. She reached out tentatively. "It's easier if I show you," she began quietly. His body involuntarily shifted away from it. "I can control it when I'm conscious, and I only need to show you a few things. It won't be like last time," she reassured him gently.

Lelouch looked down at her bare hand like it was a viper. "If I wanted to hurt you, I already could have," she continued. "You need allies you can trust."

She was right. Dammit. His face couldn't decide whether to twist into a grudging smile or a grimace. CC knew full well that he needed people he could count on after seeing his memories. "You swear it won't be like last time?"

"Yes. The transfer will only be one way. You won't relive any of your own memories."

He nodded and reached out to touch her hand, steeling himself for what was coming. "Do it."

The living room vanished into a flash of white, and suddenly visions began to flash past. CC lay on operating table, surgeons in lab coats dissecting her body. Lelouch suddenly realized that her eyes were open wide in agony, mouth contorting into a silent scream. The shock of her suffering hit him in a wave just before the image changed.

Then she was drowning in a sealed glass cube, computers and monitors beeping around the lab as more scientists went about their business.

Fire was next, a narrow, coffin-like box that was hot enough to begin charring her skin, a dispassionate face with a surgical mask peering through a transparent observation port. Then—

Lelouch snapped back to reality, his body still trembling in phantom pain. "You… You're…"

"Immortal. I regenerate from anything." CC finished coldly. The harsh anger in her voice surprised even herself. "They tortured me with experiments like that for three years at the Viceroy's orders, Lelouch. I want to be there when he dies."

* * *

Kallen was shivering uncontrollably when she finally made it back to her house, muttering curses under her breath. Without her jacket, her skintight outfit offered little protection from cool spring night. As her trembling fingers struggled to get under the doormat and find the spare key, it was all she could do not to burst into tears.

They were gone. All of them were gone. First it was Naoto, and now she would lose Ohgi and everyone else. Kallen punched the ground in frustration and let out a strangled cry; she wasn't sure if it was because of her now-bloodied knuckles or her friends.

The door latch snapped back and a widening sliver of light silhouetted a woman in the doorway. She looked up into the worried face of her mother and the dam holding back her tears finally burst. Kallen found herself pulled into a warm, comforting embrace as the sobs wracked her body.

"Shh. Hey," Her mom whispered, tucking her daughter's face into her shoulder. "You're freezing. Come inside, I'll get something warm for you."

She whisked her daughter inside, whispering reassurances as only a mother could. Kallen found heavy blanket draped across her shoulders as her mom put water on for tea. Tears still rolled down her cheeks, but not in the same flood as they were earlier.

"What's wrong, Kallen?" Her mother asked as she poured the tea and handed her a cup. "What happened?"

She momentarily regretted never admitting that she was part of the resistance. Kallen had considered it at first, but eventually decided it wouldn't be worth it. "I… some of Naoto's old friends—Ohgi and Tamaki, the ones I hang out with—they…" Kallen's voice cracked and she took a sip of tea to calm herself, hands still trembling, though she wasn't sure from what. "They got into some trouble. And there's nothing I can do." Her voice cracked again

She felt the familiar arms encircle her again. "There's always something you can do, Kallen. Somehow, someway there's always something you can do, even if it's just to wait and pray for someone to come."

Another sob coursed through her and Kallen buried her face even further into her mother's shoulder, not caring how it made her feel like a child. She wanted to go back to when those same words had given her such comfort.

* * *

Someone had driven an ice pick into the back of her skull. Milly was absolutely certain of it as she forced herself out of bed. She staggered into her bathroom and scrabbled around inside the medicine cabinet. She knew it was in here somewhere…

Her fingers finally closed around the bottle of painkillers and she poured a couple into her hand, swallowing them with a quick sip of water. She took a moment to look at herself in the mirror, squinty to try to focus her bleary eyes. Maybe drinking half a bottle of wine herself hadn't been the best idea.

She wasn't really angry at Lelouch, per se. She just couldn't stay mad at her best friend, not with how close they'd become, but that didn't mean she wasn't worried sick about him when he went on one of his gambling escapades. And his midnight phone call hadn't exactly helped reassure her.

Hopefully he'd tell her what the hell happened yesterday when she saw him. At least it was a Saturday… wasn't it? Milly double checked her phone to make sure and sighed in relief. Going through morning classes with a hangover was a real downer, and one of the few things that really made Papa mad. He said it set a bad example for the other students.

She slipped on her robe over her pajamas and made her way down to the kitchen where she could hear Sayoko making breakfast,. There was nothing quite like the smell of perfectly prepared bacon in the morning.

"Good morning, Milly," the maid said, offering a mug of fresh-brewed tea that was gratefully accepted. Its aroma cleansed some of the fog from her mind. "Lelouch left a note on the table for you to read."

Conscientious as ever, wasn't he? "Thanks," Milly said. She cautiously took a sip of the tea to make sure it wouldn't scald her, but as ever she needn't have worried. Sayoko always managed to make sure everything was the perfect temperature. She walked into the dining room and picked up the paper at her place.

 _Milly,_

 _Sorry I snapped at you last night. I'm visiting Nunnally this morning, so just come out to the grove when you're ready and we can talk._

 _Lelouch_

The paper was stained with something. Tears, maybe? Milly frowned thoughtfully. "How long until breakfast is ready, Sayoko?" She called over her shoulder.

"Perhaps half an hour? I still need to start on the biscuits."

Plenty of time to go talk to him and bring him back in time for food, then. "I'm going to go out to the grove to talk to Lelouch. We'll be back by then."

The soft chill in the air had left the moisture from last night's rain on the grass, making the clearing glisten in the mid-morning sun. The birds had woken some time ago and their songs filled the grove, seeming to compete with one another for ascendance. The only flowers were those in front of the marble headstone itself. Lelouch had always been adamant on that.

It was beautiful as ever.

"Lelouch?" Milly called.

"It's wrong." She flinched at the unexpected voice and turned to her friend who was scrunched up against the bench, head down, knees curled halfway to his chest. She hadn't even noticed him

"What is?" Milly asked as she sat down beside him.

"This," Lelouch said, ice-cold rage invading his voice as he gestured to the whole clearing. "The whole goddamn world!" He ended with a shout that seemed to quiet the birdsong, leaving the grove in an eerie, unnatural stillness. "She shouldn't be gone," he whispered again.

She sighed and slid down next to him. "What happened yesterday, Lelouch? I haven't seen you this torn up since—"

"—Nunnally died?" He laughed bitterly. "When God or whoever the fuck is sitting up there decided to play a cruel joke and steal the one thing I had left? Then?"

"Cynicism and self-pity won't earn any points with me, Lelouch," she replied sharply. "Answer the damn question." He turned away and didn't respond. At least he wasn't snapping at her anymore. "Lulu, I—"

"Clovis is performing human experimentation, Milly," he interrupted sharply. She stiffened at his words. Her friend's eyes could've been carved from stone. "I got tangled up with something in Shinjuku and had to fight my way out with one of his test subjects. Yet somehow, instead of the Emperor or my monster of an older brother, Nunnally is the one who died."

No. No, he wasn't ready. _She_ wasn't ready. Milly wanted to beg him not to go down the path. "So that's it then?" She asked instead, trying to conceal the fear in her voice for his sake.

Lelouch nodded slowly. "I think that I finally found a way to make contact with a resistance group yesterday. I'll go from there." He flinched as Milly's arms wrapped him in a warm embrace

"Just be careful for me, OK?" He could hear the unshed tears in her words. "Please."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Relatively quick update this time!**

 **Note about this chapter: there is a reason for Kallen actually, you know, having a relationship with her mom. It will be explained next chapter.**

 **Also, an aside about how Shinjuku went down: Lelouch's primary goal was to get to safety first. He doesn't have Geass (yet), and he had no way of knowing if there would be a way for him to get out at all. Even in canon, his trying to take control of the battle was the height of arrogance.**

 **I went back and revised the prologue as well, but it hasn't changed dramatically. I'll be revising chapters 2 and 3 as well, but I haven't finished yet and I'll do it along with a full post. I am definitely going to flesh them out though. Hope that you enjoyed this chapter.**

 **The next chapter will be mostly focused on some other characters, including Ohgi and Suzaku (SPOILERS: He's not dead. Shocking, I know. But I can't kill him THAT quickly. Well... maybe... hmm.) After that will probably be the first big action chapter. Sorry to make you wait until then, but character development and backstory are important too.**

 **10 bonus nerd-points to anyone who recognizes the reference in the title. (Hint: its a (mildly mistranslated) version of the beginning of a pretty famous poem. I took some liberties with translation to make it more readable.)**

 **As always, any feedback is wonderful and encouraging. Favorites and follows are greatly appreciated, and reviews even more so! Thanks for reading, as always.**


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